David Meredith's Blog - Posts Tagged "blogger"
Scoring Reviews and Getting Noticed - One author's take on how to get started
As the sweltering days of summer slowly stream by and I draw ever nearer to the one-year anniversery of my self-publishing debut, I find myself in the mood to ruminate on the successes and failures of the last year or so. Thankfully, the successes far outnumber the failures. My novel, The Reflections of Queen Snow White, has sold nearly 300 copies and has over 100 mostly positive reviews on Goodreads. In the process of achieving these results, I feel like I've picked up some helpful pointers, policies, and approaches to keep in mind in getting bloggers (and more importantly their dozens, hundreds, or thousands of followers) to notice you. I hope these will help other new authors get started effectively in promoting their work
The first thing that I can't help but notice on Goodreads is literally HUNDREDS of Group posts asking for reviews by aspiring authors. In general, these might be helpful in setting up review exchanges with other authors, but usually not so much in attracting bloggers whose promotion you really need to let the reading public know about your work. One thing I'll suggest to get better results is not to just post requests in groups.
For one thing, your request tends to get lost in a deluge of other people reqesting exactly the same thing. It has been my experience that few serious bloggers with good followings who can really help your work out even glance at those posts. In general, they respond much better to personalized requests. Most book blogs will have a submission requirements/policy/ or some other similar kind of contact tab on their blog. They will then either provide you with a contact e-mail address or review request form to fill out. If you have a professionally toned review request letter template (including a short paragraph explaining who you are, why you are contacting them and asking cordially for a review, a two - three paragraph synopsis of your work, and links to your web platform [home page, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Linked-In, etc.])that you can tweak a little for each individual blogger's tastes, policies, and preferences, you will get a lot more positive responses.
Also, the most successful bloggers are REALLY overwhelmed by review requests. Those who are the most popular, best established, with the largest number of subscribers (and thus the most helpful to you and your novel) will be reluctant to commit their valuable time to a book or author that they don't know, has no web presence, and/or has very few Amazon/Goodreads reviews already. Therefore, rather than just do a Google search for book blogs, an exceptionally good way to utilize Goodreads Groups to get started is to go through the streams not for writers, but rather for new bloggers (they tend to be titled things like "Follow for Follow", "Like for Like!", "Looking to make new blogger friends" or something similar.) Most of these posts contain links to their blog which in turn can get you their review policy and contact information or you can just send them a personalized goodreads message (not a group post). New bloggers are much more willing to look at a new author's work and ASSUMING your writing is good, a few dozen positive Goodreads reviews can really open doors to the more popular blogs with hundreds or thousands of subscribers.
Next, it may seem like common sense, but BE CORDIAL!!! Even if you get what sounds like a snotty rejection, don't respond. If you get a bad review, even if you feel it is unfair, don't attack the reviewer. At most you should never do anything more than write a short e-mail response thanking the reviewer for their time. Just because they didn't like one thing you wrote doesn't mean that they won't like something else. There's no need to burn bridges just because you are angry. Also, bloggers talk to each other. If you get a reputation as a ranter, a complainer, and someone unpleasant to work with, it will really hurt your ability to get other bloggers to review your writing in the future. Most bloggers review books as a hobby, so they have no motivation or desire to work with authors who attack them.
Finally, one last tip. Bloggers have a high burnout rate. Avoid wasting time on Orphaned Blogs by always checking the date of the most recent post. If it has been more than a month or two since the blogger last posted anything, the likelyhood of that blogger reading your work is pretty low.
I hope you find this helpful and wish you much success. Good luck to all of you in the promotion of your writing. Until next time!
The first thing that I can't help but notice on Goodreads is literally HUNDREDS of Group posts asking for reviews by aspiring authors. In general, these might be helpful in setting up review exchanges with other authors, but usually not so much in attracting bloggers whose promotion you really need to let the reading public know about your work. One thing I'll suggest to get better results is not to just post requests in groups.
For one thing, your request tends to get lost in a deluge of other people reqesting exactly the same thing. It has been my experience that few serious bloggers with good followings who can really help your work out even glance at those posts. In general, they respond much better to personalized requests. Most book blogs will have a submission requirements/policy/ or some other similar kind of contact tab on their blog. They will then either provide you with a contact e-mail address or review request form to fill out. If you have a professionally toned review request letter template (including a short paragraph explaining who you are, why you are contacting them and asking cordially for a review, a two - three paragraph synopsis of your work, and links to your web platform [home page, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Linked-In, etc.])that you can tweak a little for each individual blogger's tastes, policies, and preferences, you will get a lot more positive responses.
Also, the most successful bloggers are REALLY overwhelmed by review requests. Those who are the most popular, best established, with the largest number of subscribers (and thus the most helpful to you and your novel) will be reluctant to commit their valuable time to a book or author that they don't know, has no web presence, and/or has very few Amazon/Goodreads reviews already. Therefore, rather than just do a Google search for book blogs, an exceptionally good way to utilize Goodreads Groups to get started is to go through the streams not for writers, but rather for new bloggers (they tend to be titled things like "Follow for Follow", "Like for Like!", "Looking to make new blogger friends" or something similar.) Most of these posts contain links to their blog which in turn can get you their review policy and contact information or you can just send them a personalized goodreads message (not a group post). New bloggers are much more willing to look at a new author's work and ASSUMING your writing is good, a few dozen positive Goodreads reviews can really open doors to the more popular blogs with hundreds or thousands of subscribers.
Next, it may seem like common sense, but BE CORDIAL!!! Even if you get what sounds like a snotty rejection, don't respond. If you get a bad review, even if you feel it is unfair, don't attack the reviewer. At most you should never do anything more than write a short e-mail response thanking the reviewer for their time. Just because they didn't like one thing you wrote doesn't mean that they won't like something else. There's no need to burn bridges just because you are angry. Also, bloggers talk to each other. If you get a reputation as a ranter, a complainer, and someone unpleasant to work with, it will really hurt your ability to get other bloggers to review your writing in the future. Most bloggers review books as a hobby, so they have no motivation or desire to work with authors who attack them.
Finally, one last tip. Bloggers have a high burnout rate. Avoid wasting time on Orphaned Blogs by always checking the date of the most recent post. If it has been more than a month or two since the blogger last posted anything, the likelyhood of that blogger reading your work is pretty low.
I hope you find this helpful and wish you much success. Good luck to all of you in the promotion of your writing. Until next time!
